Textile operation



Sept. 13, 1938. K. M. UPHILL ET AL 291301346 TEXTILE OPERATION FiledApril 27, 1937 s sheets-sheet 1 I l I 5vE s /7 [9r 5: 4

K-M. UPHLL T-U'ACKSDN ATTORNEYS mvenroas Sept. 13, 1938. v K. M. UPHILLET AL 2,130,046

- TEXTILE OPERATION I Filed April 27, 193'! 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 /7 KMUPHILL T. JACKSON Sept. 13, 1938. K. M. UPHILL ET AL 2,130,046

TEXTILE O'PERATION Filed April 27. 1937 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 I 56 l] M L \II 53 5 ,LJ 52, I l Z 1 I v L 50 I 32 Cr v 2;, J.

II I 49 4a 49 4a 49 48 49 48 4 48 49 K-M-UPHILL T- JACKSON j I m vsNTORSATTORNEYS Patented Sept. 13, 1938 TEXTILE OPERATION Kenneth MersonUphill and Thomas Jackson, Spondon, near Derby, England, assignors toCelanese Corporation of America, a corporation of Delaware ApplicationApril 27, 1937, Serial No. 139,170 In Great Britain May 15, 1936 7Claims.

This invention relates to the production of knitted fabrics andparticularly to the production of fabrics in which effect threads arelaid in and locked into the fabric without being-actually knitted; i. e.there is no drawing of loops of the laid-in thread through other loopsin the fabric.

According to the present invention a fabric having laid-in threads isprepared on a multifcedcr machine having a series of needles and aseries of sinkers cooperating with the needles by a cycle of operationscomprising feeding the laid-in thread at one feeder to the front ofselected needles while the remaining needles are below the level atwhich such thread is fed, and,

at that feeder, advancing all the sinkers so as to form loops of saidlaid-in thread round said selected needles, raising said remainingneedles without withdrawing the sinkers after the feeding of said threadso that said remaining needies rise in front of said thread, and at asubsequent feeder or feeders, without drawing said loops of laid-inthread through previously formed loops in the fabric, knitting groundthread on all the needles, whereby said loops of laid-in thread arecleared, and locked into the fabric by means of the ground thread.

The cycle of operations described above is one that can be carried outon a high speed multifeeder machine having bearded needles and sinkers,and pressing means for closing the beards of the needles, withoutsubstantial modification of the machine; and the advantages of speed andaccuracy and fine gauge, inherent in machines of this type, may beobtained when fabric of the kind with which the present invention isconcerned is to be produced.

The selection of needles made in accordance with the invention ispreferably of a simple character. A method of selection which is veryeffective, and desirable also because of its extreme simplicity, is theselection of every other needle. This and other simple selections mayconveniently be carried out by having needles with operating butts ofdifferent lengths, and cams which will act differently upon saiddifferent butts. Thus, for the selection of alternate needles, the buttsof the needles will be alternately long and short. The cycle ofoperations according to the invention may comprise the laying-in of twolaid-in threads, the needles being selected in the second half 'of thecycle in such a way that the needles to which laid-in thread wasfedinthe first half of the cycle are those which are held down at thesecond-half of the cycle so that no laid-in thread is fed tothem in suchsecond half.

As a laid-in thread any desired thread having decorative or other usefulproperties may be employed according to the purpose for which the fabricultimately produced is to 'be-put. Thus the laid-in thread may be athick yarn, such as 5 cannot easily be knitted in the ordinary way uponthe needles of the machine, and even if it could be so knitted wouldproduce a fabric of greater weight than desired. Alternatively or inaddition, the laid-in thread may be a yarn of irregular l0 thickness,the irregularities of which would make it quite unsuitable for knittingin the ordinary way.

The invention provides for the high-speed production of fine gaugefabrics containing effect 15 threads, which, by being disposedsubstantially entirely at the surface of the fabric, produce the maximumof decorative or other desired effect without adding unduly to the bulkof the fabric.

By way of example one method of carrying out 20 the invention on a12-feeder bearded needle machine will now be described in greater detailwith reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic representation in de- 25 velopment of theneedles, sinkers, needle cams and sinker cams at one feed of themachine;

Figs. 2 and 3 are diagrammatic perspective views of the needles and thesinkers during their operation by the cams illustrated in Fig. 1; 30

Fig. 4 corresponds" to Fig. 1 but illustrates another feed; and

Fig. 5 is a similar view to Figs. 2 and 3 at the feed shown in Fig. 4;

Figs. 6 and 7 are similar to Figs. 4 and 5 re- 35 spectively at yetanother feed;

Fig. 8 and Figs. 9 and 10 illustrate yet another feed;

Figs. 11 and 12 yet another feed; and

Fig. 13 is a diagrammatic representation of a 40 piece of the fabricproduced by the operations described in connection with Figs. 1-12.

The method here described is carried out on a 12-feeder machine havingbearded needles mounted in the needle cylinder, these needles be- 45 ingillustrated in Figs. l-12 at I4 and i5. The needles are operated byneedle cams which run round the needle cylinder, the needle cams beingindicated generally at H5 in Fig. 1. The machine also comprises sinkersi1, operated by 50 sinker cams l8 rotating at the same speed as theclose the beards of the needles when .they are 5 pressed by the pressercams in the manner common in knitting machines of the multi-feederbearded needle type. The presser jacks have been omitted from thediagrammatic Figs. 1-12 for the sake of clarity. The cycle of operationshere described involves six feeds, feed I being represented by Figs.1-3, feed 2 by Figs. 4 and 5, feeds 3 and 6 by Figs. 6 and '1, feed 4 byFigs. 8-10 and feed 5 by Figs. 11 and 12. The operations at feeders 1I2are merely a repetition of those carried out at feeders I6 as describedabove.

The needle cams I6 act upon butts 20, 2I carried by the needles I4, I5and alternate needles I4 are provided with long butts 20 while theremaining needles I5 are provided with short butts 2I. Certain of theneedle cams I6 as hereafter described are adapted to operate the longbutts 20 only, the short butts 2I not extending far enough from theneedles I5 to reach the cams, while the other cams act on all the butts,both long and short, that come in their vertical range of actuation.

At feeder I illustrated in Figs. 1-3 the needle cam shown at 22 isadapted to raise all the needles I4, I5 after which the cam 23 drawsdown the long butt needles I4, this cam being so cut away that the shortbutts 2| are allowed to pass over it as may be seen in Fig. 1. When theneedles I4, I5 reach this feeder each of them carries on its shank asingle loop of ground thread. When the long butt needles I4 have beendrawn down, the laid-in thread 24 shown in Figs. 2 and 3 is fed-to theshanks of the short butt needles I5 below the beards thereof as shown inFig. 2. At this point sinkers I1 are pushed forward by the sinker cam 25to make loops of the laid-in thread 24 around the shanks of the shortbutt needles I5, the laid-in thread being engaged by the upper nibs 26of the sinkers I1. The short butt needles I5 are then lowered slightlyby the needle cam 21 which is sufficiently deep to enage the short butts2I. sufficient to pull the laid-in thread 24 away from the upper nibs 26of the sinkers I1.

At this feed no pressing action takes place on the beards of the needlesas will be seen by the omission from Fig. 1 of the presser cam I9 shownin Figs. 4, 6 and 11, nor are the sinkers allowed to retract as theshort butt needles descend, the sinker cam 28 being a straight camhaving no action on the sinkers. In this way the loops of laid-inthread, instead of being slackened by the retraction of the sinkers inthe usual way, so that they can be drawn through the old loops, are held31 a tight nonknitting position. The long butt needles I4 are thenraised by the engagement of their long butts 20 with a cam 29, so thattheir heads rise above the laid-in thread 24 held in the upper nibs 26of the sinkers I1. Since the sinkers have not been drawn back the longbutt needles I4 in rising come up outside the laid-in thread 24 as isshown in Fig. 3.so that the laid-in thread is'on the back or shank sideof the long butt needles I4 and not on the front or beard side. At thisstage, therefore, the laid-in thread 24 lies on the beard side of theshort butt needles I5 and on the shank side of the long'butt needles I4.The cam 29 acts on the long butt needles only, leaving the short buttneedles in the half-down position to which they have been brought by thecam 21.

At feeder 2 illustrated in Figs. 4 and 5 the short butt needles arefirst drawn right down by the needle cam 30 without being pressed, sothat This movement is not the laid-in thread 24 is pulled down from theupper nibs of the sinkers 26 into the throats 3I of the sinkers. The cam30 lies wholly below the level to which the long butts 20 have beenraised by the cam 29 (also shown in Fig. 4) so that this cam does notoperate on the long butts at all. Ground thread 32 is then fed to thelong butt needles and they are drawn down by means of a cam 33 so as topull loops of ground thread through the old loops on the long buttneedles. The beards of the long butt needles I4 are pressed at this feedby means of presser cam I9 shown in Fig. 4, but since the short buttneedles are drawn down by the cam 30 before they reach the presser camsthe short butt needles do not draw loops of the laid-in thread throughthe old loops retained on them, nor do they cast off such old loops.Both sets of needles are then raised by the needle cam 34. At this feedthe sinkers are operated in the usual way, being drawn back by thesinker cam 35 so as to allow the ground thread 32 to be fed to the longbutt needles, and

' being pushed forward again by the cam 25 so as to form loops of theground thread round the long butt needles as shown at 36 in Fig. 5. Thesinker cam 31 in Fig. 4 retracts the sinkers (unlike the correspondingcam 28 in Fig. l) and slackens the loops formed at 36 so as to allowthem to be drawn through the old loops.

At the third feeder illustrated in Figs. 6 and 7 ground thread 38 is fedto all the needles I4, I5 and all the needles are drawn down by means ofthe needle cam 39 and their beards are pressed by means of the pressercam I9 so that they draw loops of the ground thread 38 through the oldloops retained on them. The long butt needles I4 draw the ground thread38 fed at this feeder through the simple loop of ground thread 32 madeat feeder 2 while the short butt needles I5 draw loops of the groundthread 38 through the old loops which were already carried on theirshanks when they reached feeder I. These loops of ground thread 38 arealso drawn beneath the laid-in thread which was fed at feeder I. Thesinker cams 25, 35, 31 at this feed act in the ordinary way as at feeder2. When the old loops are cleared by the drawing down of the needlesunder the action of the needle cam 39 each needle carries a single newloop of the ground thread 38. The long butt needles I4 are then raisedby means of a needle cam 40 which does not act upon the short buttneedles I5.

At feeder 4, illustrated in Figs. 8, 9 and 10, the laid-in thread M isfed to the needles as at feeder I, but at feeder 4 the long butt needlesare raised to receive such laid-in thread instead of short butt needlesas at feeder I. When the laid-in thread 4| has been fed, the long buttneedles are drawn down slightly by means of the cam 42 but not so far asto pull the laid-in thread 4I away from the upper nibs of the sinkers.This action is similar to that of the cam 21 on feeder I. At the sametime, as at feeder I, the sinkers are left forward by a plain sinker cam28 instead of being withdrawn as by the cam 31 shown in Figs. 4 and 6.In this way the laid-in thread 4I is held in tight non-knitting positionround the long butt needles I4. The short butt needles I5 are thenraised by means of a needle cam 43 so that their head 'rises outside thelaid-in thread 4| held by the upper nibs 26 of the sinkers, as was thecase with the long butt needles illustrated in Fig. 3. This action isshown in Fig. 10. The cam 43 necessary forraisingtheahortbuttneedlesllflloralas .formed in the laid-in thread 24.

the long butt needles, since, being deep enough to reach the short buttneedles it must also act on the long butt needles.

At feeder 5 the long butt needles are drawn down by means of a needlecam 143 without being pressed so that they pull the laid-in thread 41from the upper nibs 26 of the sinkers H and down into the sinker throats31. When the long butt needles M are down, ground thread 44 is fed tothe short butt needles as shown in Fig. 12. The short butt needles arethen pulled down in turn by means of I the needle cam 45 and are]pressed at the appropriate stage by the presser 19 as was done with thelong butt needles at feeder 2. By this action the short butt needlesknit the ground thread, drawing it through the old loops formed atfeeder 3. All the needles are then raised by the needle cam 46. Atfeeder 5 the sinker cams 25, 35, 31 act in the ordinary way as atfeeders 2 and 3.

At feeder 6 the operations performed at feeder 3 are repeated exactly;that is to say the ground thread 38 is fed to all the needles which arethen all drawn down and pressed to knit such ground thread and clear allthe old loops.

As previously stated the operation at feeders ll-l2 is a repetition ofthe operations above described at feeders l-6. I

In Fig. 13 a fabric produced in the manner described above withreference to Figs. 1-12 is illustrated. In this figure it will beassumed that the row of loops 41 is the row carried by all the needleswhen they reached feeder l (and also feeder l) as described withreference to Figs. 1-3. Then 24 is the laid-in thread fed to the shortbutt needles at that feeder, which short butt needles produce thealternate wales of the fabric indicated at 48. Then 32 is the groundthread fed to the long butt needles 14 at feeder 2 (and 8) which longbutt needles produce the wales 49 in Fig. 13. The thread 32 is drawnthrough the old loops 4? on the long butt needles but not through theold loops 4! on the short butt needles so that the loops 4'1 in thewales 48 are drawn out to a great length. 38 shows the ground thread fedat feeder 3 (and 9) and this ground thread is drawn through the loops 50formed on the long butt needles out of the ground thread 32, and throughthe loops 41 held on the short butt needles in the wales 48. It will beseen that in the wales 48 the thread 38 is drawn not only through theloops 4'! but also under loops M The ground thread 38 fed at feeder 3 isthus drawn through an old loop at every wale to form a new series ofloops 52. all the needles when they reach feeder 4 (and ill) at whichfeeder the laid-in thread 4! is fed to the long butt needles 114 whichform the wales 49. At feeder 5 (and H) the ground thread 44 is fed tothe short butt needles only, and this forms new loops 53 in the shortbutt wales 48 only, the loops 52 in the long'butt wales 49 beingstretched. At feeder 6 (and 12) further ground thread 32 is fed to allthe needles, and is knitted by all needles, being drawn through theloops 53 in the wales t8, and in the Wales 49 being drawn through theloops 52 and under the loops 54 of the laid-in thread 40. It will beseen that the laid-in threads 24 and 45 are not drawn through any loopsin the fabric whether of ground thread or of laid-in thread.Nevertheless these threads are held firmly in the fabric by shortlengths of ground thread indicated at 55 formed of the ground thread 32fed at feeders 3 and t and also by This is the series of loops carriedby longer lengths of ground thread 56 formed of the ground thread fed atfeeders 2 and 5.

It will be understood that Fig. 13 is a diagrammatic representation ofthe fabric in which the loops are shown very open in order that thestructure of the fabric may be seen. In an actual fabric of the kindshown, however, the face of the fabric is formed almost entirely of theloops 5'! of laid-in thread which lie over and tend to conceal not onlythe ground thread but even the loops 54 and 5| of the laid-in threadreferred to in the above description of the fabric.

In the fabric shown in Fig. 13, the ground thread is the same, and issimilarly fed at all 4 of the feeders l, 4, 1 and l 0. The effectproduced, however, may be varied by omitting one or both laid-in threadsin the second cycle, i. e, at feeders l and/or l0. Similarly othereffects may be produced by omitting alternate laid-in threads, e. g. atfeeders l and l or by omitting three of the four laid-in threads, so asto lay in an effect)- thread at one feed only out of the twelve.

Furthermore, the quality of the fabric may be varied by altering thethrow of the sinkers at the point where the laid-in thread is fed, i. e.by altering the throw of the sinker cams H8 at feeders l, 4, I and I0.In this way the length of the loops of laid-in thread that are formedround the needles by the sinkers is varied and the quantity of laid-inthread actually knitted into the fabric is controlled. Since most of thelaid-in thread lies exposed on the face of the fabric, the quality ofthe fabric may be greatly varied in this manner, and furthermore,effects may be produced by making the throw of the cam it different atthe different feeders l, 4, l and i0.

The operations described above may be carried out on a standard highspeed knitting machine having the usual provision of needles andsinkers, and operating cams therefor, and having long and short buttneedles with provision for differently actuating them. Very littlemodification of the machine is required. The presser cams are removed atfeeders l, 4, l and I0, and at these feeds also, the plain sinker cam 28is substituted for the usual sinker cam 31. Further, the needle camsmust be arranged to produce the required movements of the long and shortbutt needles as described above. The only other necessary'change is theadjustment of the thread feeders that may be necessary at feeders H, 4,l and Hi, to enable them to take the particular kind of effect threademployed as the laid-in thread.

Having described our invention what we desire tosecure by Letters Patentis:

1. Method of producing a knitted fabric having laid-in threads on amulti-feeder knitting machine having a series of needles and a series ofsinkers co-operating with the needles, said method comprising feedingthe laid-in thread at one feeder to the front of selected needles whilethe remaining needles are below the level at which said laid-in threadis fed and, at that feeder, advancing all the sinkers so as to formloops of said laid-in thread round said selected needles, raising saidremaining needles without withdrawing said sinkers after the feeding ofsaid laid-in thread so that said remaining needles rise in front of saidthread, at the next feeder knitting a ground thread on said remainingneedles only, and at ,the next feeder, without drawing said loops oflaid-in thread through previously formed loops in the fabric, knitting aground thread on all the needles whereby said loops of laid-in threadare cleared and locked in the fabric.

2. Method of producing a knitted fabric hav- 5 ing laid-in threads on a.multi-feeder knitting machine having a series of needles and a series ofsinkers co-operating with the needles, said one feeder to the front ofselected needles while the remaining needles are below the level atwhich said laid-in thread is fed and, at that feeder, advancing all thesinkers so as to form loops of said laid-in thread round said selectedneedrawing said sinkers after the feeding of said laid-in thread so thatsaid remaining needles rise in front of said thread, and at the thirdfeeder, without drawing said loops of laid-in thread through previouslyformed loops in the fabric, knitting a ground thread on all the needleswhereby said loopsof laid-in thread are cleared and locked in thefabric, and at an equal number of further feeders, repeating theseoperations, with said remaining needles acting as the selected needlesand said selected needles as the remaining needles.

3. Method of producing a knitted fabric having laid-in threads on amulti-feeder knitting machine having a series of needles and a series ofsinkers co-operating with the needles, said method comprising feedingthe laid-in thread at one feeder to the front of selected needles whilethe remaining needles are below the level at which said laid-in threadis fed and, at that feeder, advancing all the sinkers so as to formloops of said laid-in thread round said selected needles, raising saidremaining needles without withdrawing said sinkers after the feeding ofsaid laid-in thread so that said remaining needles rise in front of saidthread, at the next feeder knitting a ground thread on said remainingneedles only, and at the next feeder, without drawing said loops oflaid-in thread through previously formed loops in the fabric, knitting aground thread on all the needles whereby said loops of laid-in threadare cleared and locked peating these operations, with said remainingneedles acting as the selected needles and said selected needles as theremaining needles.

4. Method of producing a knitted fabric having laid-in threads on amulti-feeder knitting machine having a series of needles and a series ofsinkers co-operating with the needles, said method comprising feedingthe laid-in thread at one feeder to the front of alternate needles atwhich said laid-in thread is fed and, at that feeder, advancing all thesinkers so as to form loops of said laid-in thread round said alternateneedles, raising said remaining needles without withdrawing said sinkersafter the feeding of said laid-in thread so that said remaining needlesrise in front of said thread, at the next feeder knitting a groundthread on said remaining needles only, and at the next feeder, withoutdrawing said loops of laid-in thread through previously formed loops inthe fabric, knitting a ground thread on all the needles whereby saidloops of laid-in thread are cleared and locked in the fabric.

5. Method of producing a knitted fabric having laid-in threads on amulti-feeder knitting method comprising feeding the laid-in thread at 1dles, raising said remaining needles without within the fabric, and atthe next three feeders, re-

while the remaining needles are below the level machine having a seriesof needles and a series of sinkers co-operating with the needles, saidmethod comprising feeding the laid-in thread at one feeder to the frontof alternate needles while the remaining needles are below the level atwhich said laid-in thread is fed and, at that feeder, advancing allthe'sinkers so as to form loops of said laid-in thread round saidalternate needles, raising said remaining needles without withdrawingsaid sinkers afterthe feeding of said laid-in thread so that saidremaining needles rise in front of said thread, and at the third feeder,without drawing said loops of laid-in thread through previously formedloops in the fabric, knitting a ground thread on all the needles wherebysaid loops of laid-in thread are cleared and locked in the fabric, andat an equal number of further feeders, repeating these operations withsaid remaining needles acting as the alternate needles and saidalternate needles as the remaining needles.

'6. Method of producing a knitted fabric having laid-in threads on amulti-feeder knitting machine having a series of needles and a series ofsinkers co-operating with the needles, said method comprising feedingthe laid-in thread at one feeder to the front of alternate needles whilethe remaining needles are below the level at which said laid-in threadis fed and, at that feeder, advancing all the sinkers so as to formloops of said laid-in thread round said alternate needles, raising saidremaining needles without withdrawing said sinkers after the feeding ofsaid laid-in thread so that said remaining needles rise in front of saidthread, at the next feeder knitting a ground thread on said remainingneedles only, and at the next feeder, without drawing said loops oflaid-in thread through previously formed loops in the fabric, knitting aground thread on all the needles whereby said loops of laid-in threadare cleared and locked in the fabric, and at the next three feeders,repeating these operations, with said remaining needles acting as thealternate needles and said alternate needles as the remaining needles.

7. Method of producing a knitted fabric having laid-in threads on amulti-feeder knitting machine having a series of needles and a series ofsinkers co-operating with the needles, said method comprising feedingthe laid-in thread at one feeder to the front of selected needles whilethe remaining needles are below the level at which said laid-in threadis fed and, at that feeder, advancing all the sinkers so as to formloops of said laid-in thread round said selected needles, raising saidremaining needles without withdrawing said sinkers after the feeding ofsaid laid-in thread so that said remaining needles rise in front of saidthread, at the next feeder knitting a ground thread on said remainingneedles only, and at the next feeder, without drawing said loops oflaid-in thread through previously formed loops in the fabric, knitting aground thread on all the needles whereby said loops of laid-in threadare cleared and locked in the fabric, the sinkers at the different feedsat which said laidin thread is fed being advanced to different extentsso as to vary the length of the loops of laidin thread and to produce avariation of effect in the fabric.

KENNETH MERSON UPHILL. THOMAS JACKSON.

